Newsletter growth

Every answer 29 answers

• Are cheap newsletter subscribers lower quality?

  Often a bit, yes. My fastest-growing, cheapest-to-acquire local newsletter is also my only one with a bad open rate, around 28% to 30%. I don't claim the low price caused it, but near 20 cents maybe one in three or four subscribers isn't great. I remove non-openers after a couple of weeks and report open rate next to cost.

• Can I use my own subscribe page and still send newsletters with Beehiiv?

  Yes. Send your ad traffic to a subscribe page you control, run the survey and offers there, then push the subscriber and their answers into Beehiiv by API. Beehiiv still sends the welcome email and every issue. Subscribers never see Beehiiv's forms. The catch: if your page breaks, the whole funnel breaks, so test it end to end.

• Can a signup survey add subscribers to a second newsletter?

  Yes. Add one yes-or-no question to your post-signup survey: want us to add you to our other newsletter too? Every yes gets pushed to the second list, so one ad dollar buys two subscribers. You can even use it to pre-build the list for a newsletter you haven't launched yet.

• Can you change newsletter signup survey questions after launch?

  With your own survey tool, yes. Get it as right as you can at launch, then change it as you learn. A new question just has fewer answers on file, because earlier subscribers never saw it. Beehiiv's built-in survey was the problem for me: editing it effectively meant starting a new survey, so plan before you launch.

• Do Meta ads for a newsletter also grow your Instagram followers?

  Yes, if you send new subscribers to your Instagram page after the survey. Roughly 30% to 40% of them follow. One brand I grow has about 6,000 Instagram followers with zero posts, from 12,000 newsletter subscribers in a year. One ad dollar buys a subscriber and a follower.

• Does a registration wall grow a newsletter list faster than a pop-up?

  It can, and the wording matters as much as the wall. Hearst's SFGATE newsroom swapped a polite 'sign up for free' article message for the headline THIS IS NOT A PAYWALL and reportedly converted 10x their normal newsletter pop-ups. Same offer, different words. A vendor I met claims required walls beat optional pop-ups 2x to 7x.

• Does asking for a zip code hurt newsletter signup survey completion?

  Not in my experience. A public nonprofit newsroom made a typed, required zip code its first question and still saw about 75% to 80% of new subscribers finish the whole survey. Location first also tells people the newsletter is truly local. Put it on page one so you keep it even if they quit later.

• How do I turn Instagram followers into newsletter subscribers with ManyChat?

  Set ManyChat (about $15 to $20 a month) to DM every new follower: thanks for following, we also have a free newsletter, reply yes and I'll add you. Typed-in emails convert better, but sending a subscribe link gets them into your survey. Pair it with giveaways where a comment keyword triggers the DM.

• How do you grow a local newsletter without paid ads?

  Mostly with trades and word of mouth: promote local businesses in exchange for them sharing you, put your cards at their front counter, run a booth with something people want, auto-DM Instagram followers, and partner with dormant local Facebook groups. My proven channel is Meta ads, so I'm clear about which of these I've done myself.

• How do you run a newsletter giveaway that actually gets results?

  Make the prize big enough to excite people, around $1,000 in value, and package it as an experience people can picture, not a plain gift card. A sponsor's real cost can be $500 or less using open inventory. Then promote it: I'd put about $200 of Meta ads behind it over a week instead of only posting on Instagram.

• How long can you run ads for a new newsletter before sending the first issue?

  A few weeks, not a few months. I start ads with a welcome email and short warm-up sequence and send the first real issue around three weeks in. On one brand I ran ads for eight weeks with nothing but the welcome email, and its open rate started 10 to 15 points lower than my other launches.

• How many custom fields should a newsletter use in Beehiiv for survey answers?

  Keep it to about 10 to 12 custom fields per brand. Map survey answers to the fields you already have from earlier surveys, and only create a new field when a question is genuinely new. Use custom fields, not tags, for answers like zip code and interests. Automate the mapping so nobody has to configure it by hand.

• How many questions should a newsletter signup survey have?

  Six to eleven works if they're spread across pages well. My own survey has 11 questions, nine of them required, and still gets 45% to 50% completion. Page clicks and long option lists cause more drop-off than question count. Every question adds a little friction, so keep only the ones you'll use.

• Should I remove unengaged subscribers from my newsletter list?

  Often, yes. Inbox providers read low engagement as a spam signal, so a big block of people who never open can push everyone else out of the primary inbox. On a 12,000-person list of mine, about 3,900 hadn't engaged in 90 days. Cutting them leaves about 8,000, still a good number, and I was leaning toward doing it.

• Should I use Beehiiv's built-in survey or build my own signup survey?

  I moved off Beehiiv's built-in survey. With it my brands averaged roughly 40% to 50% completion. With my own one-question-per-page survey they average 65% to 75%. The built-in one shows a long form and, in my experience, wouldn't let me edit questions after launch. A free Google Form placed right after subscribe is a fine cheap start.

• Should a local newsletter send one welcome email or a welcome sequence?

  Most local newsletters, mine included for a long time, send one welcome email. That works, but it leaves money and engagement on the table. A short warm-up sequence holds new subscribers until your first real issue, and the first emails are a good place to nudge anyone who skipped the survey or show a sponsor offer.

• Should you ask for a phone number when people subscribe to a newsletter?

  You can, and a lot of people will give it: anywhere from about 20% of survey completers to about 40% of signups, depending on the flow. But collecting numbers is easy and using them is not. Texting carries TCPA liability, so I stopped asking until I could store real proof of consent. I'm not a lawyer.

• Should you ask newsletter subscribers if they own a business?

  Yes. It's one of the most valuable questions in a local signup survey. Usually 15% to 20% of subscribers say yes, and you can send that segment advertising and partnership emails. Even people who say no just learned you sell ads. Add it before launch, because you can't go back and ask people at signup.

• What is a good completion rate for a post-subscribe newsletter survey?

  If the survey sits on the page right after subscribe, 50% or better is normal. Across about ten of my locations I see 50% to 80%, usually 60% to 70%. Around 40% means something in the flow needs fixing. A survey sent by email gets 1% to 2%, so placement matters more than anything else.

• What is a good open rate for a local newsletter?

  Typical email open rates are about 25% if you're lucky, and 30 to 40% is very good. My local newsletters usually run 40 to 55% opens with 3 to 8% click rates, and a good one gets around 50%. Fast, cheap paid growth pulls opens down 5 to 10 points. If a list falls to about 30 to 33%, I send mainly to recent openers.

• What is negative CAC for a newsletter?

  Negative CAC means new subscribers earn back more than they cost to acquire, usually through offers shown right after signup. If a local subscriber costs 50 cents on Meta and earns 50 cents on the spot, growth is free. Above that, you're paid to grow. I wouldn't promise it, but even cutting acquisition cost in half is huge.

• What questions should a local newsletter ask new subscribers?

  Start with location, then ask things you can segment or sell on: which local deals they want, age, own or rent, kids, pets, business owner, real estate plans, and an optional phone number. Put free-form write-ins last. Drop anything you can't act on, like a favorite local restaurant question.

• What should I do when my newsletter open rate drops to about 30%?

  Switch to sending mainly to recent openers. My rule is that any newsletter at or below a 30% to 33% open rate should send primarily to people who've opened recently, and I had my team audit every brand against that line. Low engagement tells inbox providers you might be spam, which pushes you further down.

• What should a newsletter subscribe page look like?

  Boring, on purpose. Brand name, the word free, a one-line description, an email field and a Subscribe button. No navigation header, no newsletter picker, no 'let me read it first' link. When I removed that one escape link from my Beehiiv page, my cost per subscriber dropped in half.

• What survey questions should a newsroom ask new newsletter subscribers?

  Only ask what you'll act on. For a newsroom that usually means zip code first, business owner, donate yes, maybe or no, interest in events, and maybe a second newsletter or daily digest option. Four or five questions is plenty. Skip 'what should we cover' unless you'll actually change coverage based on it.

• When is the best time to survey a new newsletter subscriber?

  Right after they hit subscribe, on the very next page. People are roughly five times more engaged in that moment than they will ever be again. My surveys placed there get 50% or more completion, and one early list hit 87%. The same survey linked in a welcome email gets about 2%.

• Where should a newsletter send people right after they subscribe?

  Never to a dead-end 'thanks, watch your inbox' page. My flow is subscribe, survey, then the brand's Instagram page, which picks up a follow from about one in three people. If you have a paid plan or take donations, send them there instead. With no survey, at minimum use a custom, human thank-you page.

• Why do people abandon a newsletter signup survey?

  Usually it's friction you added, not the survey itself: too many answer options on one question, two dropdowns on one page, too many Next clicks, a long form shown all at once, or a new pop-up in the flow. Fix those, save partial answers so drop-offs still count, and watch completion after every change.

• Why push social media followers to a newsletter instead of a story link?

  Because a newsletter gives you permission to reach someone again and again, and a link gets you one read. On social, an algorithm decides who sees you. Email goes straight to people you own a relationship with. Push followers to the signup, then put your stories, donation asks and offers inside the newsletter.